CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The use of etudes or caprices in the training of a violinist has long been regarded
as an important aspect of study. The etude, the French word for study, has been
described as fundamental, 1 integral, 2 and indispensable. 3 In the violin repertoire, the
caprice has traditionally served in the same capacity as the etude, that is, as a study
piece. The earliest example of the caprice as a study piece for violin is Pietro Locatellis
(1695-1764), The Art of the Violin, op. 3 (1733). Since then, many studies have
appeared with the word etude, caprice, or both in the title. Although the violin
etude/caprice does not lend itself to public performance, 4 the purpose of the etude/caprice
is to present a technical problem or challenge in the context of a musical setting. It is the
teachers responsibility to carefully choose those etudes/caprices that will aid in the
development of the student. Such careful consideration will serve as an asset in the
overall development of the students technical powers5 by enlarging the students
technical abilities 6 and contributing to a well-rounded technique.
In the twentieth-century, certain etude books have become standard. Rodolphe
Kreutzers (1766-1831), Forty-Two Etudes (1799), has come to occupy a central
position in violin pedagogy.7 Flesch states that his appreciation is the greatest for the

Joyce Keith Dubach, An Encyclopedic Index of Commonly Used Violin Etudes Catalogued and
Organized Pedagogically by Technical Difficulty (D.A. diss., Ball State University, 1997), 11.
2
Albert Lazan, A Few Moments of Beauty, in New Concepts in String Playing: Reflections by
Artist-Teachers at the Indiana University School of Music, ed. Murray Grodner, 62-69 (Bloomington and
London: Indiana University Press, 1979), 63.
3
Samuel and Sada Applebaum, The Way They Play (Neptune City, N.J.: Paganiniana
Publications, 1972), 354.
4
Carl Flesch, The Art of Violin Playing, Book I (New York: Carl Fischer, 1930), 91.
5
Joseph Berljawsky, Reflections on Violin Pedagogy, Strad LXXVI (Nov 1965): 237.
6
Flesch, The Art of Violin, Book I, 91.
7
Walter Kolneder, The Amadeus Book of the Violin: Construction, History, and Music, (Portland
Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1998), 359.

Kreutzer Etudes. 8 Havas refers to the Kreutzer etudes as the violinists bible,9 and
Szigeti writes that they were a key influence in the formation of my equipment.10
Other etude books have become standard as well. As students advance in ability, many
teachers use a sequence of studies. Elizabeth A. H. Green has described Galamians
sequence as the standard etude books.11 If one compares the published sequences of
Leopold Auer (1850-1930), Carl Flesch (1873-1944), and Ivan Galamian (1903-1981),
three internationally recognized violin pedagogues of the twentieth-century, one can see
duplicate choices in repertoire. As shown in Figure 1.1, all three pedagogues share the
Kreutzer Etudes, Rode Caprices, and Dont Etudes. The Paganini Caprices are found in
the sequences of Auer and Flesch. Both Flesch and Galamian contain the Filorillo
Etudes, Wieniawski Lecole moderne, and Suazay Le violon harmonique.
Also apparent from Figure 1.1 are the publishing dates. If one examines the
publishing dates, it is clear that most of these were published before the twentiethcentury. Further examination of the etudes and caprices that were published around the
turn of the century, such as those by Sauzay, Schradieck, and Sevcik, reveal the use of
tonal practices from the nineteenth-century. Most of the studies listed here are often
referred to as the classical school, or the Classical French school. This school was a
style of playing that was cultivated at the Paris Conservatoire, ca. 1800. Its first violin
professors, Francois de Sales Baillot, Rodolphe Kreutzer, Pierre Gavinies, and Pierre
Rode, were influential in perpetuating high standards through the publication of etude

Flesch, The Art of Violin, Book I, 91.

Kato Havas, A New Approach to Violin Playing, (London: Bosworth, 1961), 64.
10
Joseph Szigeti, Szigeti on the Violin, (Toronto, Ontario: General Publishing Company, 1969), 7.
11
Ivan Galamian, Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching, with a postscript by Elizabeth A. H.
Green, second edition (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1985), 120.
9

books. Later, their students would continue this tradition with the publication of their
own method books. Such influence extends into the twentieth-century. Carl Flesch
states that he wrote his Scale Studies so that his students would be mindful of the fluent
methods of the classic[al] French school of violin playing.12
Leopold Auer13
Kreutzer, Forty-Two Etudes (1799)
Rode, Twenty-Four Caprices (1813)
Rovelli, Twelve Caprices, opp. 3 and 5 (1820/22)
Dont, Twenty-Four Etudes, op. 35 (1849)
Paganini, Twenty-Four Caprices, op. 1 (1820)
Carl Flesch14
Kreutzer, Forty-Two Etudes (1799)
Filorillo, Thirty-Six Etudes (1790)
Rode, Twenty-Four Caprices (1813)
Sauzay, Le violon harmonique (1889)
Vieuxtemps, Six Concert Etudes, op. 16 (1846)
Dont, Twenty-Four Etudes, op. 35 (1849)
Schradieck, Twenty-Four Studies (ca. 1900)
Wieniawski, Lecole-moderne, op. 10 (1854)
Sauret, Eighteen Etudes, op. 24 (1886)
Paganini, Twenty-Four Caprices, op. 1 (1820)
Ernst, Six Polyphonic Etudes (1865)
(one can intersperse the following Sevick exercises as one sees fit)
o Sevcik, School o f Violin Technique, op. 1 (1881)
o Sevcik, School of Bowing, op. 2 (1895)
o Sevcik, Violin School, op. 8 (1904/5)
Ivan Galamian 15
Kreutzer, Forty-Two Etudes (1799)
Filorillo, Thirty-Six Etudes (1790)
Rode, Twenty-Four Caprices (1813)
Gavinies, Twenty-Four Etudes (ca. 1800)
Dont, Twenty-Four Etudes, op. 35 (1849)
Dancla, Twenty Etudes, op. 73 (ca. 1870)
Sauzay, Le violon harmonique (1889)
Wieniawski, Lecole-moderne, op. 10 (1854)

Figure 1.1. Etude sequences, listed in pedagogical order.

12

Carl Flesch, Scale System: Scale Exercises in All Major and Minor Key for Daily Study (A
supplement to Book I of the Art of Violin Playing), revised and enlarged edition by Max Rostal (New York:
Carl Fis cher, 1987), preface.
13
Leopold Auer, Violin Playing As I Teach It, (Toronto, Ontario: General Publishing Company,
1980), 96-98.
14
Flesch, The Art of Violin, Book I, 93.
15
Galamian, Principles of Violin Playing, 120.

In Figure 1.2, one can see the inter-connectedness among the authors of these
classical etude books. All are part of the Classical French School. All were either
directly influenced by their studies with Kreutzer, Baillot, or Rode (the founders of the
Classical French School), or indirectly influenced by their studies with the students of
Kreutzer, Baillot, and Rode.
Today, the standard method books are still relevant, as well as essential, for the
development of high technical and artistic standards. Max Rostal, a former student of
Carl Flesch, and an internationally acclaimed violinist and teacher, is an advocate of
expanding violin technique to reflect contemporary music practices. Yet, in his zeal for

Figure 1.2. Method book writers from the Classical French School.
contemporary music, he does not dismiss the value of classical training when he states,
the fundamental ideas [of violin technique] are still valid.16 Rostal is in agreement with
other scholars when it is recognized that classical training alone will not prepare one for
the rigors of performing contemporary music. The internationally recognized violin
historian, Robin Stowell, describes this lack of preparedness due to a reliance on a
comparatively small select corpus of study materia l drawn principally from the Classical

16

Carl Flesch, Scale System, (New York: Carl Fischer, 1987), editors preface.

French violin school of Rode, Baillot, Kreutzer, Mazas, Habeneck, and others.17 The
Soviet music historian and theoretician I. M. Yampolsky writes that contemporary lefthand demands are left out of the classical collections of studies of Kreutzer, Rode,
Gavinies, Lvov, Dont, and others.18 The violinist and author Harold Berkley writes that
contemporary right-hand demands are not addressed in the classic curriculum of violin
studies---Kayser, Mazas, Kreutzer, Fiorillo, Rode, Dancla, Dont, deBeriot, etc.19
The purpose of this research is not to dismiss the value of the Classical French
school. Giesy, 20 Pereira, 21 Read, 22 Walters, 23 and Zukofsky24 state that what we
encounter in contemporary repertoire is not necessarily new technique. What causes
discomfort for the violinist is the new ways in which already established technical ideas
are used. Adessa, 25 Duguid, 26 Reitz, 27 and Walters 28 agree that the classical training will
always remain a necessary and integral part of a violinists education. The four also

17

Robin Stowell, The Pedagogical Literature, in The Cambridge Companion to the Violin, ed.
Robin Stowell, 224-233 (Cambridge: Camb ridge University Press, 1992), 232.
18
I. M. Yampolsky, The Principles of Violin Fingering, preface by David Oistrakh, translated by
Alan Lumsden (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), 60.
19
Harold Berkley, The Modern Technique of Violin Bowing: An Analysis of the Principles of
Modern Bowing. (New York: G. Schirmer, Inc., 1947), 7.
20
Marya Hannum Giesy, A Study of the Similarities in Fingering Principles of the Eighteenth
and Twentieth Centuries (D.M.A. diss., Ohio State University, 1979), 2.
21
Ernest Pereira, Twentieth-Century Violin Technique (D.M.A. diss., The University of Texas,
1987), 18-19.
22
Gardner Read, Contemporary Instrumental Techniques (New York: Schirmer Books, 1976), 3.
23
Willard Gibson Walters, Technical Problems in Modern Violin Concertos, with Related
Original Exercises and Etudes (Ph.D. diss., State University of Iowa, 1958), 238.
24
Paul Zukofsky, Aspects of Contemporary Technique (with Comments about Cage, Feldman,
Scelsi, and Babbitt), in The Cambridge Companion to the Violin, ed. Robin Stowell, 143-147 (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1992), 143-144.
25
Anthony Thomas Adessa, Contemporary Violin Technique: Its Nature and Difficulties (D.M.
diss., Indiana University, 1981), 104.
26
Carle Douglas Duguid, A Pedagogical Study of Selected Intermediate Violin Pieces (Ph.D.
diss., 1988), 229.
27
Heiner Reitz, 12 Caprices for Violin Solo: Studies to Twentieth-Century Music, op. 3 (Zurich:
Edition Eulenburg, 1972), forward.
28
Willard Gibson Walters, Technical Problems in Modern Violin Concertos, with Related
Original Exercises and Etudes (Ph.D. diss., State University of Iowa, 1958), 16.

agree, however, that preparatory material must be expanded to include method books that
incorporate new, twentieth-century practices.
While more contemporary studies written for the violin could be written, this
present research has demonstrated that there appears to be a significant number of
commercially available contemporary etude literature for the violin. Over the course of
the twentieth-century, the very same violin scholars and pedagogues who cited a lack of
contemporary etude material also recommended little known etude publications, and
sometimes wrote original, contemporary etudes themselves. Over time, a corpus of
contemporary etude books emerged. When one looks at these writings comprehensively
and compiles the suggested etude publications and original etudes, one finds that there is
no apparent void in the number of available etude books. What is missing is the
recognition by scholars and pedagogues that there seems to be a sizable number of
commercially available etude books in the contemporary idiom. This monograph is the
first to address this void.
Once these etude books are identified, it then becomes the purpose of this study to
first capsulate those skills considered important and unique for the successful
performance of contemporary music onto an instrument that can accurately reflect the
technical content of a wide variety of contemporary etude books, regardless of a
composers style, a particular school of composition, or time in history, and secondly, to
use this newly created instrument, the Content Analysis Form for Contemporary Violin
Etude Books, to analyze five selected contemporary etude books. The books chosen for
this study will be based on commercial availability and the composers international
reputation. Thus, Meadowmountetudes, by Samuel Adler, Freeman Studies by John

Cage, Studies for Violinists, by Paul Hindemith, Rhythmic Studies by Bohuslav Martinu,
and Ten Preludes, by Eugne Ysae, were chosen for this study.
It is important to stress that this study is not a conventional theoretical analysis of
the chosen works. The Content Analysis Form for Contemporary Violin Etude Books is
designed to record only those technical matters that are important and unique for the
successful performance of violin music written during the twentieth-century.